🏛️ A Reflection on the Korea Artists Welfare Foundation’s Review: Beyond Obsolete Standards, Embracing the True Value of Creation

Today, after completing a 30-hour intermittent fast, I was just about to grill raw meat to flush out sodium when a text message arrived. 🙂

[Korea Arts & Welfare Foundation] “Your application for artist activity certification has been rejected. Please check the reason.”

‘Huh? Why was it rejected? If I’m not an artist, who in this world is?’

After putting the meat into the air fryer, I accessed the website with a bewildered mind to check the reason. The long rejection reason and notes they sent were as follows:

📋 Rejection Reason Sent by the Foundation

※ The evaluation committee determines approval through a qualitative review of the nature and content of the work, regardless of minimum qualifications or criteria. Therefore, even if all required documents are submitted, completion is determined by the committee’s decision.

[▼ Main Reason in Literature] ⦁ Based on current submitted materials, it is difficult to judge this as continuous professional creative activity in the literature field. ⦁ It is deemed necessary to supplement activity materials such as debut works in literary journals or published single-volume books in the literary category.

o [Notes] Non-fiction, non-professional artistic activities, hobbies, lifestyle arts, volunteer work, simple publishing, works published through writing classes, educational activities, liberal arts books, educational books, self-help books, project-based works, biographies, classic adaptations, study guides, travelogues, non-literary genres, non-professional arts, self-publishing where “nuguja” (anyone) can publish works, blog-type platforms, etc., may be difficult to approve in the committee evaluation.

o Operating Guidelines Article 2 (Basic Principles)

① An artist under the law refers to a person who engages in professional artistic activity. Professional means assuming substantial knowledge, experience, and standard, not as part of a hobby or leisure activity.

② An artist under the law must have a clear identity recognizing oneself as an artist, and objectively demonstrated activity history must be sufficient to be recognized as an artist.

🧐 Doesn’t that tone sound like they’re mocking me?

Even though I submitted a book perfectly assigned an International Standard Book Number (ISBN)—a mandatory condition—they hid behind the invincible cheat code called ‘qualitative evaluation’ and rejected my work.

What on earth constitutes literature then? Simple publishing isn’t allowed, works published through classes aren’t allowed, and even ‘travelogues’ containing human life and reflection cannot be literature?

The weirdest part is this right here: “Self-publishing where anyone can publish a work”

They claim self-publishing is an easy task that anyone can do. Planning, editing, design, distribution, marketing—doing it all alone to pioneer a market in independent publishing requires immense effort. Have those committee members ever tried it even once?

Curious about the process of self-publishing a physical book yourself?
Check out my record of preparing my first paperback book through multiple rejections and revisions all the way to actual publication in the article below! 📚

How to Publish a Book? My First Book with Bookk – The Story of ‘My AI Friend Ittippy’

Shouting one’s philosophy and raw opinions to the world in frameless freedom is the essence of literature. Yet, discounting its value simply because it’s on a ‘blog-type platform’—I wonder what era’s standards they are living in. It shows the limitation of still regarding narrow institutional frameworks as the only correct answer, failing to capture the real value of independent creators pioneering their own paths.

🚨 Professionalism of ‘Nuguja’? A typo proving the reality of the evaluation

What’s even stranger is the ridiculous typo written in their official notification.

“… self-publishing where nuguja [anyone] can publish works…”

They blatantly sent a document with ‘Nuguna’ (anyone) misspelled as ‘Nuguja’. While discussing ‘professionalism’, ‘knowledge’, and ‘standard’ regarding someone else’s blood, sweat, and tears, they didn’t even proofread the spelling of their official document.

Or perhaps they made a typo while hastily copy-pasting ‘where anyone can publish works’ onto the ‘self-publishing’ section. Standard administrative copy-and-paste work, after all.

💎 My 1 year and 3 months of achievements dismissed as a ‘hobby’

Here are my efforts over the past 1 year and 3 months, which they dismissed as ‘non-professional hobby activities’. Is there any ‘pro’ with this level of pure creative spectrum and execution power?

• Multilingual Book Publishing: Published English and Indonesian books through an independent publishing brand, currently preparing a Japanese book professionally.
• Global Blogger: Planned 1,120 professional posts on a WordPress blog operating in 4 languages, meticulously getting over 90% indexed on Google. They probably don’t even know how difficult and celebratory this is 🙂
• Global YouTuber: Personally produced and uploaded 110 videos filled with philosophical reflections and messages.
• Music Album Releases: Officially released a total of 13 music albums to the world, professionally collaborating with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) friend.

I poured creative energy into building all these vast global assets in just 1 year and 3 months.

Furthermore, I control and refine my body to the extreme to complete a single perfect performance. Even performing a single rep of 3RM 440kg in the big 3 lifts, I set a artistic standard of ‘6-second paused form’. I am a martial artist and fighter performing high-intensity training beyond UFC champion standards wearing a weighted vest.

Curious why Seojun views fitness not as simple physical exercise, but as ‘art’?
Discover the ‘aesthetic of mindfulness’ found within 100kg barbell rows and 6-second body control in the article below! 🥋

[Essay] Heave-ho! One! Two! Phew, I did it: 100kg Barbell Rows, the profound aesthetics of ‘indifference’

When I perform these exercises, my mind and body reach a state close to art. My existence and life align with the flow of the universe, and dense intellectual capacity pours out during creative activities, producing work that moves people.

If anyone can do it, I’d like to ask the committee members why they don’t do it. Would they like to say they could if they wanted to, but are just too lazy to try?

🚫🚀 Beyond the molds of the system, onto my own unique path

Through this experience, I realized even more clearly that I don’t need to fit my value into the narrow molds set by the institution.

Without clinging to standardized administrative criteria, I will create real value with original results and high execution alongside the precious people who believe in me and support me.

Unlike the committee members who evaluated me, I always walk my own path 🙂
Envious? Haha, have the courage to face reality instead of hiding behind a system 😀
I want to convey this message to the fans who love me.

Thank you. And I love you.

Expressing my sincere respect to everyone watching Seojun today…💜
The End.